![Van Robotics founder Laura Boccanfuso fist bumps ABii, her robot tutor.](/uofsc/images/post_images/2024/05_post_carosp24_boccanfuso_and_abii_059_edit-eyes.jpg)
A Robot In Every Classroom
May 16, 2024, Rebekah Friedman
Van Robotics founder Laura Boccanfuso has a vision for improving education, one dancing, smiling, fist-bumping robot at a time.
May 16, 2024, Rebekah Friedman
Van Robotics founder Laura Boccanfuso has a vision for improving education, one dancing, smiling, fist-bumping robot at a time.
May 15, 2024, story by Craig Brandhorst | photos by Kim Truett
Study abroad can change a student’s life. For Bierkeller founder Scott Burgess, it led to a dream come true.
March 18, 2024, Laura Morris
USC’s College of Engineering and Computing and the Darla Moore School of Business established a new 4+1 pathway partnership in 2024. This unique collaboration offers students the opportunity to earn an undergraduate degree from engineering and computing and a master’s degree from the Moore School in five years.
March 06, 2024, Chris Horn
Imagine smartphones that bend, twist and stretch like rubber. Or 3D-printed material that mimics the pliable characteristics of human cartilage found in knees, noses and ears. It’s not much of a stretch for Ting Ge, an assistant professor in chemistry and biochemistry who has just begun a five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to delve deeper into the field of ring polymers.
February 26, 2024, Page Ivey
Brian and Nicole Cendrowski spent more than a decade dreaming of opening their own brewery before settling on a plan and a location. Their Fireforge Brewery & Taproom in downtown Greenville weathered the pandemic and is now a thriving member of the Upstate community they call home.
February 09, 2024, Téa Smith
After earning her advertising degree in 2008, Amber Guyton never imagined she would be using it to help her run an interior design business, but she’s done just that. Now she owns and operates the Atlanta-based, Blessed Little Bungalow.
February 05, 2024, Chris Horn
Puggy Blackmon wants to improve more than your swing. As part of the team at PRISMA Health’s Motion Analysis and Performance Lab, the former USC golf coach is also improving lives.
January 17, 2024, Craig Brandhorst
MapQuest co-founder Chris Heivly has a history of helping early stage entrepreneurs. Now, he’s lending his expertise to a Columbia nonprofit aiming to boost the city’s tech sector.
January 11, 2024, Rebekah Friedman
After losing her mother to Alzheimer’s, journalist and TV personality Leeza Gibbons devoted her second act to helping caregivers through Leeza’s Care Connection.
November 13, 2023, Thom Harman
Following in his father's footsteps, Roger Barnette attended the University of South Carolina, loved his college experience and learned what he needed to have successful career. Now he's helping the Honors College recruit today's top talent from the Atlanta area and beyond.
August 25, 2023, Craig Brandhorst
Wesley and George Bryan IV made their mark on the greens as Gamecock golfers. The brothers are now teeing off as golf course owners.
July 26, 2023, Megan Sexton
Bill Sutton, a professor of practice in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, brings his half-century of experience and connections in the sports industry to students at USC.
June 26, 2023, Craig Brandhorst
On the last Friday before the end of classes, USC TIMES invited three staff members to lunch at McCutchen House’s Garden Grill to discuss how our work lives change — or don’t change — over the summer. George Hendry, director of the McCutchen House and senior lecturer in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, shared his thoughts on troubleshooting through teamwork. Jennifer Asouzu, assistant director for special populations and communication with New Student Orientation, talked up partnerships and first impressions. Leroy Sims, a custodial zone manager with Facilities and a member of Staff Senate, discussed employee satisfaction and how to make the USC campus the happiest place on Earth.
June 14, 2023, Page Ivey
After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the hospitality and tourism industries in March 2020, businesses, particularly restaurants, encouraged customers to return, in part, by offering contactless menus. One key piece of that was the QR code — a technology created by a subsidiary of Toyota as a means of tracking its manufacturing processes.
May 25, 2023, Megan Sexton
Darla Moore School of Business marketing associate professor Xiaojing Yang along with researchers from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, examined the effects of pet exposure on consumers’ subsequent judgments and decisions, even in ads that are not focused on pet products.
May 22, 2023, Q&A by Craig Brandhorst
In “A Brilliant Commodity” (Oxford University Press), USC history and Jewish studies professor Saskia Coenen Snyder explores the diamond trade of the late 19th century and the critical role played by Jews at every level of an emerging international commodity market.
April 21, 2023, Hannah Cambre
The Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning is celebrating the Graduation with Leadership Distinction Program's tenth anniversary. Take a look at some of the earliest graduates with leadership distinction.
April 20, 2023, Page Ivey
To combat South Carolina’s nursing shortage in the next few years will take a team effort, involving health care companies as well as universities who train the essential health care workers. Prisma Health is providing $5 million to five South Carolina schools, including USC Columbia and USC Upstate, which will receive $1.3 million each. The program also helps the next generation of South Carolina nurses understand their roles within a larger health care system.
April 10, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
As senior director of policy and research at Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, Chynna A. Phillips is taking on poverty one partnership at a time.
March 28, 2023, Téa Smith
First-year marketing major Jala Lewis helps key players on the women’s basketball team craft the signature hairstyles they wear on the court.
February 24, 2023, Allen Wallace
As a partner and vice chairman of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, Sheila Johnson is the only African American woman with ownership in three professional sports teams. Students in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management are gaining unique insights from Johnson as she returns for a second semester to co-teach a class on leadership.
February 14, 2023, Téa Smith
New interim bachelor of social work program coordinator Bree Alexander is eager to give students more opportunities to pursue their research interests — on their own or working with a faulty member.
January 17, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
Indigo is tightly woven into South Carolina history, but few have worked with the rich natural dye since it fell out of favor nearly 150 years ago. Alumna Caroline Harper is bringing it back.
January 13, 2023, Craig Brandhorst
English professor and heirloom foodways expert David Shields introduces us to South Carolina seed saver Carold Wicker, whose Newberry County freezer chest is the stuff of legend among farmers, gardeners and heirloom produce detectives like Shields.
December 02, 2022, Téa Smith
Craft beer is big business but that doesn’t necessarily mean business is booming.In fact, for many of the nation’s smaller brewing operations, competing with established large-scale “macrobreweries” is a David and Goliath story — and the laws are stacked in Goliath’s favor. But Scott Taylor Jr.. and his colleagues at the Wine and Beverage Institute at USC School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management are working on the first of three papers exploring the negative impact of Prohibition-era laws on competition within the alcoholic beverage industry.
November 16, 2022, Michaela Taylor
A 30-foot tiger set ablaze could be the stuff of nightmares but for University of South Carolina students, it’s a typical Monday before Thanksgiving break.
November 15, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
Langston Moore and Preston Thorne made a big impact on the football field at Williams-Brice. Now the former Gamecock defensive lineman make their impact writing children’s books and visiting schools.
November 14, 2022, Kyndel Lee
The West Columbia Outreach Program allows social work graduate students to complete field hours in the law enforcement field, giving them hands-on experience with case file management.
September 08, 2022, Jeff Stensland
University of South Carolina faculty members in the liberal arts, humanities and social sciences can now apply for a new grants program that will provide up to $25,000 for scholarship and creative work in the arts.
July 28, 2022, Megan Sexton
In a field where careers can change in an instant and big money is always on the line, sports agent and HRSM grad Aaron Henderson understands the importance of doing the hard work. He expects the same professionalism and commitment from his clients.
June 01, 2022, Chris Horn
For the past 10 years, Fabio Matta, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been engineering earthen building blocks made from local soil. Up close, the blocks don’t look like anything special, but their simplicity is the appeal — the blocks don’t require firing in energy-intensive kiln furnaces and can stand up to the worst Mother Nature can throw at them.
April 11, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
Romance, historical fiction, sci-fi — for young adult novelist Shanna Miles, it’s all fair game. It’s also rocket fuel for the imagination, whether she’s typing up the next interstellar adventure or turning kids on to reading and writing as a virtual school librarian.
April 05, 2022, Dan Cook
When you think of change management, you might think of the Harvard Business Review or McKinsey’s global consultants. You probably don’t think about musicians. But in David Cutler’s new book, the distinguished professor of entrepreneurship and innovation in the School of Music takes lessons that began in the arts and translates them into a broad-based way of thinking about change in any other facet of life.
March 23, 2022, Megan Sexton
Susan O'Malley, the first woman to run a professional sports franchise, has brought her knowledge, insight and enthusiasm to the University of South Carolina, focusing on giving students a taste of the fast-paced field of sports and event management.
November 04, 2021, Laura Kammerer
Columbia native Ben Green will speak live at the McNair Entrepreneurship Showcase on Friday (Nov. 12) at the Russell House Underground. The event, sponsored by the university’s McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise, will also feature speakers such as MapQuest founder Chris Heivly, ’84 master’s geography, and Mixtroz co-founder Ashlee Ammons.
July 26, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Greenville developer and business administration graduate Brody Glenn oversees major construction projects for corporate clients nationwide. With Camperdown, a mixed-use, live-work-play development in the heart of downtown Greenville, he is reshaping his hometown.
July 21, 2021, Page Ivey
Brian and Nicole Cendrowski have traveled a circuitous route to owning their own brewery in downtown Greenville, but what started from a “not awful” batch of beer in January 2007 has turned into a brewery, taproom and kitchen.
April 30, 2021, Audrey Hill
The Office of Sustainability along with mechanical engineering students worked together to create a sustainable solution for providing power to events at UofSC. The solar trailer is a converted, movable trailer that is able to store energy from the sun and power electrical equipment.
November 12, 2020, Laura Kammerer
Yaw Addei-Boadu sees chances to innovate, well, everywhere — from event rentals to biogas stoves to fashionable emergency alert devices. Now he's one of a growing number of University of South Carolina students and alumni entrepreneurs who are shaking up the startup scene.
June 30, 2020, Megan Sexton
A new cardiothoracic assessment tool pioneered at the University of South Carolina combines a hand-held ultrasound device, an electronic stethoscope, and an EKG, all tied together with artificial intelligence.
April 09, 2020, Megan Sexton
Mark Ferguson, a professor in the Darla Moore School of Business, explains how supply chains may be affected during the pandemic.
March 05, 2020, Megan Sexton
While artificial intelligence research and programs are growing around the country, the University of South Carolina’s AI Institute is among the first in the Southeast to include diverse colleges and departments.
August 20, 2019, Chris Horn
The successful sale of physics professor Thomas Crawford’s startup company is a testament to the university’s SmartState Center for Experimental Nanoscale Physics, one of more than two dozen centers established to foster research that leads to commercialization, economic development and job creation.
August 13, 2019, Chris Horn
From humble beginnings, University of South Carolina alumnus Richard Sorin and his son, Bert, have turned Sorinex into one of the nation’s premier strength equipment manufacturers, with clients spanning professional sports and universities from every major athletics conference.
May 06, 2019, Allen Wallace
Andrew Super will graduate from the University of South Carolina May 11, but earning his diploma might be the second most impressive thing he has accomplished during his college career. In the past two and a half years, he has helped provide numerous free prosthetic devices for children and veterans in need, through a company he co-founded.
March 22, 2019, Ross Stevens
Students and alumni will compete for $51,000 in startup prize money in The Proving Ground, the university's annual business plan competition March 28 at the Darla Moore School of Business.
March 03, 2019, Allen Wallace
University of South Carolina student organization Dance Marathon raised $1,038,156 for Prisma Health Children's Hospital, breaking the record set last year.
January 23, 2019, Carol J.G. Ward
An international workshop at the University of South Carolina challenged participants to consider the future of music higher education by re-envisioning curriculum for the 21st century
December 03, 2018, Megan Sexton
The university has established several new degree programs that illustrate creative curricula by adding innovation, an entrepreneurial approach or other types of value to traditional degrees.
March 21, 2018, Taylor Evans
The community is invited to cheer students and alumni of the University of South Carolina as they compete for startup prizes and support in The Proving Ground Thursday, March 29.